SSS (Simple Salad Sticks)

Tried many ways to make your family members eat salads and failed?? These salad sticks may help you make them eat some. 🙂 The same basic ingredients but all together in a cocktail stick. Looks colourful and inviting. They may remind you of Cheese cherry pineapple sticks. It’s so very juicy & refreshing that you will instantly fall in love with them.

I had to have my dinner alone last night. Keshav was going to be late from work. Did not want to pick some frozen ready food & indulge. I hate eating by myself so to make myself eat I had to trick myself into coming up with this salad sticks. Yes, at times my stomach growls but the thought of eating all by myself makes me skip my meal. I know it’s not good to skip meals so try tricking myself by preparing different treats. 🙂

Ingredients: (Serves 2) Preparation Time: 10 minsCucumber – a quarter portion of a whole cucumber. Peel the skin if you want to, I left them on Salad Tomato – 2 medium-sized Iceberg lettuce – about 5-6 leaves Mozzarella – half a mozzarella ball or the whole ball depends on how many sticks you plan to make & the size of the pieces you cut them into Sweet pepper – half of one pointed red sweet pepper else you can use normal red pepper, a small one though Black olives – 5-6 Extra virgin olive oil – 1 tsp Crushed black pepper – 1/4 tsp, use freshly ground Lemon juice – 1/2 tsp Salt to taste

Method:Chop all the veggies into cubes as shown in the picture. Cut the mozzarella in small cubes too. Take off the seeds from the tomatoes. Tear each lettuce leaf into 2. Slice each olive into 2 to form 2 thick sliced pieces.

Now add all these into a mixing bowl. Add salt, crushed black pepper corns, lemon juice, olive oil. Mix well. Let them absorb the flavours for a few minutes.

Fold the lettuce leaf as you fold a handkerchief and pierce cocktail sticks into them. Add the other chopped veggies one by one.

Tip:You can substitute mozzarella with some cottage cheese if you want to skip cheese. Also if you find small basil leaves add a leaf in between for its awesome flavour. 🙂

Also I skipped crushed black pepper here as I was not in the mood for some black pepper as the little spice from the sweet peppers sufficed for me.

Remember to add salt, lemon juice, olive oil & crushed black pepper just a couple of minutes before you serve them, that should be enough for the veggies to absorb the flavours. Adding salt much before you serve will cause them to give out water and your salad will get watery.

Serving suggestions:Serve just as a small snack or as a side to any main dish.